In this study, a detailed characterization on the microwave noise performance of high gain metamorphic heterojunction bipolar transistor (MHBT) in the temperature range of 300 K to 380 K is performed. The results art, compared between the MHBT and the referenced lattice-matched InP HBT (LHBT) devices. The minimum noise figure (NFmin) versus frequency in the range of 2 to 20 GHz at different temperatures for a 1.6 x 20 mu m(2) HBTs are measured. The experimental results show that the MHBT exhibits a slightly larger variation in NFmin compared to lattice-matched HBTs. Even though the MHBTs may have much higher thermal resistance, this may not significantly affect the device microwave noise performance. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.